Hairpieces and method of hair preparation



Dec. 23, 1958 P. MITCHELL HAIRPIECES AND METHOD OF HAIR PREPARATION Filed June 4, 1956 United States Patent HAIRPIECES AND METHOD OF HAIR PREPARATION Princess Mitchell, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application June 4, 1956, Serial No. 589,279

3 Claims. (Cl. 132-5) This invention relates to hairpieces and methods of hair preparation and particularly to a hairpiece and method of hair preparation whereby a short hair dress may be rapidly converted into a long hair dress.

Short hair dresses are popular with women because of the ease of handling and care from day to day. There are, however, occasions when a long hair dress would be highly desirable. On such occasions, a full wig or transformation has been worn over the short hair. Other alternatives have been proposed but have been unsatis factory.

The present invention provides a solution to the problem of rapidly converting a short hair dress into a long hair dress.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a hair piece to be rapidly attached to the natural hair of the wearer.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of rapidly converting a short hair dress into a long hair dress.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a hair piece made up of a plurality of strands of hair depending from an elongated thin flexible member.

Another object of this invention is to provide a method of supplementing natural short hair by the steps of plaiting the hair in spaced substantially parallel plaits around the head and sewing to each plait a hair piece made up of a plurality of strands of hair depending from an elongated thin flexible member to form overlaying layers of hair.

Other objects, advantages and purposes of this invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following description and the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view of a womans head showing the method and apparatus of this invention.

Figure 2 is a segment of plait and hairpiece according to this invention showing the method of attachment.

Figure 3 is a section on the line III-III of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings there is illustrated a plurality of rows of spaced parallel plaits in a short head dress. These plaits are made by continuously adding hair to the strands of the plaits as the plaiting proice gresses. This type of plait is often known as a French plait." A hairpiece 11 is made up of a thin elongated flexible member 12 and depending strands of hair 13 attached thereto by plaiting or sewing. The member 11 is attached to the plaits 10 by a stand of hair 14 or thread which may be carried through the plaits by means of a needle 15. Successive hair pieces are added to each plait to form a complete hairdress as shown in Figure 1. Each succeeding higher hairpiece conceals the preceding plait and hair piece connection (see Figure 1) to form a complete long hair dress.

The hair dress of this invention can be combed, brushed and otherwise handled as natural hair. The novel hairpiece and method of hair preparation of this invention makes it possible to have all the advantages of a short hair dress for day to day use and yet makes possible,

, for special occasions, an attractive long hair dress which cannot be distinguished from the natural hair.

I claim:

1. A method of rapidly converting a short hair dress into a long hair dress by the addition of artificial hair to the natural hair, comprising the steps of, plaiting the natural hair into a plurality of verticaily spaced-apart and substantially parallel horizontal plaits around the head, providing a thin preformed member having de pending elongated strands of hair of a length greater than the distance between said vertically spaced-apart plaits, and successively sewing one of said preformed members to each of said plaits beginning with the lowermost plait, to form successively overlapping layers of artificial hair and thereby providing a long hair dress.

2. A method of preparing a hair dress as defined in claim 1 wherein, each thin preformed member is attached to each plait by sewing with a strand of hair.

3. A method of preparing a long hair dress from a short hair dress, comprising the steps of, plaiting the natural hair into a plurality of vertically spaced-apart and substantially horizontal parallel plaits around the head, forming each plait by successively overlapping three strands of hair while picking up additional hair with each center strand, and manually sewing a thin member carrying elongated strands of artificial hair depending therefrom to each such plait with a strand of hair, to form successive overlapping superposed layers of artificial hair and thereby providing the wearer with a long hair dress.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 4,031 Shaw June 14, 1870 170,497 Smith Nov. 30, 1875 220,627 Krause Oct. 14, 1879 1,373,302 Chaplin Mar. 29, 1921 1,540,102 Cohen June 2, 1925 2,165,716 Molleson July 11, 1939 

